Don’t Cancel $260 Million Contracts For ExxonMobil’s Usan Field, Group Urges FG, Minister

A GROUP, Niger Delta Indigenous Movement For Radical Change (NDIMRC), has called on the federal government to ignore calls by some ‘stakeholders’ in the oil and gas industry to cancel the $260 million contracts for the ExxonMobil’s Usan Field.

Some stakeholders, under the aegis of Nigerian Content Front (NCF), had requested the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to cancel the contracts awarded for the field.

But NDIMRC, in its reaction, implored the minister to ignore the call in the interest of the region.

In the statement signed by its president, Nelly Emma, secretary, John Sailor and public relations officer, Stanley Mukoro, respectively, the group restated that the contract followed due process and reaffirmed its earlier clean bill of health on the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the NNPC.

The statement read: “We want to restate that those seeking for the cancellation of the contract duly awarded and threatening to drag NAPIMS before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are being economical with the truth.

“This deal was managed by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) for two years before it was taken over by ExxonMobil and it is not true that NAPIMS allegedly approved the contract illegally.

“The NNPC has cleared the air on this issue in a recent advertorial in one of the national dailies and we had expected that those still rooting for the cancellation would have allowed a sleeping dog to lie.

“The records of the NNPC concerning the contract for the provision of 0lMR Vessel and WROV Services for Usan operations- proposed termination of contract by ESSO- are straight enough and it is our humble appeal to the federal government to ignore those are out to mislead the public by calling for the cancellation of the contract, as NNPC has set the records straight on the issue.”